Today we drove to Cahors and Rocamadour and played tourists. In part to start giving the kids an idea of the land, so they don't just think this place is all only a big busy city with crazy drivers (Toulouse). 120 km north is Rocamadour, which is on the picture. An amazing medieval town built into the side of a very steep cliff side. We took the stairs all the way to the top, because I thought at first that that was where they kept the black madonna, that people still make pilgrimmages there for.

And Cahors is a beautiful city on the river Lot. A big power center in the middle ages, amongst other things the banker for much of Europe. And today a charming and lively, yet relaxed town, with much to look at. We went for a boat trip on the river, starting at the Valentre fortress bridge from the 13 hundreds. And there are forests here. I like forests.

Cahors incidentally is also one of the Danish Queen Margrethe's homes. She and her husband, who was a French Count, own the wine chateau Caix there and stay there every summer.

We were planning to see some underground grottos and rivers as well at Gouffre de Padirac, but we were running out of steam after all that stair climbing in Rocamadour.

Cahors is a town I'd love to live in. It is unfortunately much easier to find rental houses in Toulouse suburbs, so we'll have to see what pops up. From what I hear it is also easier to buy than I might have imagined, so maybe we'll be able to do that sooner than I expected.

I don't know when we'll be so settled that I again can philosphize more about life and start putting more attention on the rest of Europe. First things first.

Things are different here of course. I don't know what it all means yet. Thousands of years of history are everywhere present. Things happen in different ways, in a different rhytm.

I've so far managed the French pretty well. And I very quickly got to drive like everybody else. The rest of my family swore that it would be a while before they'd be ready for that. Really, what at first looks like chaos is just a set of different agreements on what one can do and what one can't. It doesn't bother anybody much if someone goes the wrong way in a one way street, or if you race through a narrow street with hairpin turns and only inches free on each side.

17 Jul 2003 @ 15:50 by mx @149.142.240.188 : driving...yes, it is a different set of rules. same in Brazil. I find it much more efficient than the Angeleno way of driving, hehe..
great pictures and pointers! superkewl! And say hello from me to the Black Madonna when you meet her!
mx

17 Jul 2003 @ 17:35 by bushman : hmmTrying to estrapolate just how fast I could go on those roads, in my truck, lol. Wonder if they would let my truck onto the autoban, it's pretty fast. Do you see lots of dents in peoples houses or shops? Big scrape marks down the walls? And what happens when there is an accident, do they beat each other up? You need to start one of those fotologs, I want to see , lol.

Enjoy the Cultural Shock, which *may* feel rather like Star Trek characters materializing a galaxy away.

18 Jul 2003 @ 03:17 by ming : DrivingHeheh, I mean centimeters of course. And, remarkably, the cars and the walls don't have many bumps. And not many accidents. These guys drive aggressively, but they aren't necessarily actually aggressive. In L.A. it is sort of the other way around. Everybody's puttering along, bumper to bumper, but they're ready to explode at the slightest provocation.

18 Jul 2003 @ 07:52 by Jon @216.113.202.103 : Driiving Is A Natural ThingI always found when driving in France, Italy and Spain that using one's intuition and gut was what works - and I think everyone else there is doing the same thing. Of course, their "gut" is likely to be different than in LA - different view of life and how it works.

I always found the driving to be easier and more enjoyable - once I surrendered.

19 Jul 2003 @ 02:44 by HT @172.196.224.220 : Good To Hear, All You Are Doing Well"I went to the woods, because I wanted to live deliberatly.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.
And not, when I had come to die,
discover that I had not lived."
-Henry David Thoreau

"Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset."
-Alfred Tennyson